Twitter / jeremyweate

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Nicky Campbell in today's Guardian makes a reasoned argument for Glasgow being the only choice for the 2014 Commonwealth Games:

'Article 2 of the Commonwealth Games Federation constitution, which earnestly promotes "gender equality and tolerance"; or Article 7, which says "there shall be no discrimination against any country or person on any grounds whatsoever including race, colour, gender, religion or politics".'

He continues,

'Nigeria's criminal code states that anyone who has "carnal knowledge of any person against order of nature or permits a male to have carnal knowledge of him" is liable to 14 years in prison. Currently going through parliament is the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act, which slaps a five-year sentence on anyone who "performs, witnesses, aids or abets the ceremony of same sex marriage" and also on anyone involved "publicly or privately in positive representation of or for same sex relationships".'

He finishes thus, 'The games belong to Glasgow. Can I be the first to congratulate them?'

Just imagine that Abuja did win, that the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act was passed, and that openly gay athletes came to Nigeria to compete. All the hypocrites would come crawling out of the woodwork, and we'd have a Miss-World-in-Nigeria MkII scenario. Oh dear.

- how come which China has worse human rights record are hosting the Olympics?- how come Edinburgh got to host Commonwealth games in 1986 despite UK's shameful support for apartheid in South Africa then?Truth is as people have rights to accept homosexuality so does people have rights to reject it.

Thank goodness, I now have one more reason as to why my home-country should not be granted an opportunity to host the worl in 2014!

Imagine how much the country is willing to spend to host the world when in fact, it is a struggle to sponsor NUGA (Universities Games) effectively. I know when it come to international show-case, the country is likely to do better but I doubt if anything will be done to groom young athletes towards the event as they do in other places in the world.

Also, think about the number of politicians who will become richer due to self-awarded contracts - forget about the so-called transparency in governance or due-cause/course policies, they are all psuedo-phenomenon.

Now on the last but very important point, what will happen to the homosexual athlethes? Bearing in mind that Yaradua will be in his second term in office, (am I being too optimistic?) will he declare a persona non grata for these set of atheletes?

If Nigeria is given the mantle to host the world on this occassion, I can only compare the situation to the current situation in UN where Zimbabwe is the "chair" for a committee on "human right related issues" - how ironic is that?

it's just a bill that's passing through the regular legislature. it hasn't been passed yet, but everyone is acting that though it's already written in stone. these same sorts of laws have been discussed in many countries. what makes nigeria's situation so particularly 'evil.' while i hope the law does not become law, i don't worry even if it does because it won't be enforced.